Build a Personal
Health Journal (part 2)
Get a hold of your
personal medical records
In our last Every Patient’s Advocate column,
we reviewed the good practice of keeping
your personal health records. Today we’ll
look at the method for obtaining medical
records from your doctors to include in your
files.Certain laws regulate how records can be
shared, and with whom. The laws were written
to keep patients’ records from getting into
the wrong hands.
Based on those laws, individual doctors
establish their own procedures to help you
to obtain your records from them.
Procedures vary, depending on the specialty,
the time period in question, and what the
record is. Unless the records you need are
recent, it may take up to 10 days to get
them back, and you may be charged up to 75
cents per page for copies. Among the
doctors I’ve interviewed, most will not
charge when they are referring a patient for
a consultation, or if the patient is seeking
a second opinion. Many will charge for
records that are no longer current and must
be pulled from storage.
You must be the patient, or the parent or
guardian of the patient for whom you seek
records**. Most practices will have a form
you must fill out with basics such as your
name, the dates in question, and the records
you are looking for. By law, doctors are
required to share any records they have
developed themselves, or any test results
for which they have copies. They are also
required to share any information provided
by another doctor if that information was
used for the diagnosis and/or treatment
being discussed with their patient.*
If you would like a copy of diagnostic lab
medical test such as a blood test, CT scan,
x-ray, mammogram or others, the laws say you
can only obtain those records from the
doctor who ordered them, or your primary
physician. The testing center is not
allowed to provide them directly to you.
Even more laws and guidelines limit how long
a doctor is required to store your records.
With the advent of electronic record
keeping, those time frames may expand since
electronic records take up very little space
and are easily searchable. However, don’t
be surprised if you request records from
seven or more years ago, and they are no
longer available.
In our next Every Patient’s Advocate column,
we’ll have suggestions for what to do if you
need records from a doctor who is no longer
in practice, and we’ll review some methods
for storing your records.
................. Additional Information
....................
*Thanks to
Cindy Nappa of SUNY Upstate Medical
University (Syracuse, NY) and Donnie Richman of Fager and
Amsler Attorneys for providing additional
information.
**There are others
who may also access your medical records
including insurance companies (who will make
decisions about insurance coverage), the
government (used to make decisions about
Medicare reimbursements, Social Security
disability and others), certain judicial
proceedings and others.
(This is part 2 of 3. Link here to
part 1 or
part 3.)
© 2006 Trisha Torrey
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